


Scars

by AngstSpaghetti



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: ( cremates the canon and throws it into the water like a norse funeral ), ( grabs canon ), But not that major either, Comfort, Cross-Posted on Wattpad, F/M, Fluff, Hurt, I'll probably add some tags later, Kingdom of Hyrule, Link (Legend of Zelda) Has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Minor Original Character(s), Oh but author!!, Original Character(s), Please help i don't know how to do tags, Post-Calamity Ganon, Rebuilding Hyrule, Zelda (Legend of Zelda ) Has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Zelda already forgave herself in the secret ending!! Your fic makes no sense!!, Zelink but they're dorks, i just really love zelink okay, not really graphic but there's some pain, sorta angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-16
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-14 10:27:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28793913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngstSpaghetti/pseuds/AngstSpaghetti
Summary: Even though the majority of Hyrule has carried on, Zelda is still dealing with the effects of Calamity Ganon. After all this time, she decides it's time to heal the castle and herself.
Relationships: Link/Zelda (Legend of Zelda)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 18





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, this is my first work on AO3! Any construct crits are super appreciated.

"There," a satisfied voice came from the short-haired woman, dusting out what was left of the castle's library. Her royal outfit was fairly dusty and would need cleaning from all the work she was doing.

"Link! How does it look?" Zelda slid down the ladder she used to dust off the tops of the gigantic bookshelves. She nearly fell, but it was faster than going down the ladder one step at a time.

Link, covered in much more dust and scratches than his partner, peeked out of the upper hallway, with a wide-eyed look, surprised at how much dust must've been in the library. "Looks good!" He put the Master Sword back into its sheath and hurried down the stairs; the stairs which had a long metal ramp going across it to compensate for the loss of stairs.

"Is the upper level clear?" Zelda asked, handing a clean towel to Link so his face could be at least partially free of grey dust. 

"Yeah. The others got the dining hall pretty clean too," He responded, his voice rough as usual, though a bit muffled through the towel. "There were still some bokoblins hanging around so," his smile was felt from a mile away from he said, "I threw them out the window."

"Of course you did," she sighed with and shared Link's radiant smile. "Could you tell the others to take a break for now? I think we worked enough for the day."

Link nodded, promptly running back to the upper chamber. Zelda looked back at all the work that had been done; only a month in and the castle was still its destroyed self from a year ago, the only difference being fewer monsters and less dust. 

Seeing the castle in this state was like a scar, reminding of how late her sealing powers came. She told herself each night that, no, this isn't her fault, but those scars just didn't heal properly. 

Maybe, just maybe she thought, if she could restore some of the glorious citadel to its former glory, that scar would finally heal right.

On an impulse, the princess used the sheikah slate she'd borrowed from Link, and traveled to the front of the castle, trying to remember where her study was. 

She had taken a few wrong turns, partially due to her memory not being as clear, but she had finally gotten to the bridge which led to…

Well, what was once her study. She had hoped for some things to be left there, but it seems the calamity had nearly caved it all in, save for her old research diary. 

She flipped through the pages with a delicate touch, as the paper was almost ashes in the wind. Reading the diary was giving her a glimpse into the past, allowing her to reflect on her emotions. Maybe her father was really looking out for her, telling her to stop focusing on the Guardians. 

...Nah.  
She felt childish, but it still left a sour taste in her mouth when she reflected on that. The diary reminded her of the guardian parts she kept in that room, which some were still in the last place she left it. 

And once more, she was lost in her world of ancient technology, as she moved fallen timber out of the way and found more gears and ancient screws. 

She must've been in a whole different world because when she was struck in the back, it threw her into reality at such a speed it made her sick. 

The pain wasn't that bad, though one more strike would probably spell out death for her there. She turned around to see a dark-colored Moblin, gripping what could easily be a royal broadsword. 

Panicked, she took a run for it, trying to get as far away as possible. Pain, however, seared across her back and rendered her motionless for a few seconds. 

She analyzed the situation, looking at where a possible solution could be. From what Link had told her, Moblins had pretty large swings of attack. She had to move away in time. 

Zelda took a risky choice but managed to rip the royal broadsword from out of the monster's hand, just when it finished its attack. 

She had struck the monster 3 times in the back but was only lucky that it fell off the bridge when she couldn't grip the sword anymore.

"Zelda!" A shaky, rough, and loud voice dashed up to her, clear who it was from the sound of frantic steps. 

"...Hello." She was unsure of what to say, knowing she defeated a black Moblin without Link's help. "Sorry for not letting you know."

The nonchalant response was met with a thousand, "do you know what could've happened if-" and frantic eyes. Link probably lost a heart looking at the mark the Moblin made.

Zelda sheepishly apologized, though realizing how similar Link was to her late father.

Maybe he was looking after her after all.

"Zelda, sweetheart please let me know when you're coming here next time--" Link was suddenly pulled off his train of frantic thought when realized he didn't ask how Zelda got hurt. "Wait, wait. How did you get hurt?"

She stood up, picked up the royal broadsword in the process. "I'd tell you, but I'm afraid you'd have a panic attack."

"I already am..!" Link whined, desperately trying to calm his nerves. He may have been brave and bold, but Zelda was just a whole different story.

She grabbed Link's hands, intertwining them with her own, and looked him in the eyes, trying to put him at ease. "Link, breathe."

Link did as ordered, and after a minute or so, he was much better than before. 

"While I was in my study, a black Moblin attacked me, but I grabbed his sword and thankfully it fell off the bridge," Zelda explained, looking him dead in the eyes.

Link's breathing became a bit unsteady again, but it was quickly corrected. "Please let me take you back to Hateno. If we are going to come here again, I need to clear this castle on every level."

Zelda hesitantly agreed. She wanted to stay, but there was nothing more they could do for the ruined place. 

Hand in hand, they walked out of the castle and wished the other workers a safe trip. The Princess and her Knight readied their items and packed them onto their horses. 

The ride to Hateno was unusually tense between them. While on horses, they'd blabber about a million things until the horses themselves probably got tired of their giggly talk. 

Link had noticed the way Zelda had held her back up. It was imperfectly straight.

"Zelda? Your back, is it okay?" Link's eyes were fixated on her. 

"Yeah," She badly lied through the dull pain. "It's alright, don't worry."

Link had paused for a good bit, still fixated on her, but had moved his eyes to her back. 

"I have some hearty elixirs at the house. Can you control your horse like that?" 

"Link, I appreciate your concern, but I'm fine." She again, badly lied, which gained an eyebrow raise from her knight. 

She couldn't argue with him, so she ended up riding on Link's horse, while holding onto him and being able to relax her back some more. Her horse followed.

The night began to spread its wings over the horizon, and the stars soon came out to decorate the sky. 

Soon enough, she began to grow drowsy from all the work in the day alone. Though she was half-awake, she could hear ( and feel ) humming come from Link. 

Link humming was one of the ways he had learned to pass time while reading a horse. It'd kept him awake and calm. Though, with Zelda leaning on him with her wrapped around him lightly, it invoked a whole new sense of calmness.

When they reached Hateno Village, it was night, and most of the adults and kids in the village were tucked into bed. Link had stopped both of the horses outside and gently poked Zelda awake.

The sleepy princess groaned upon being woken up, but was answered with a "You can go back to sleep, just go upstairs." 

Zelda, more sleep-walking than anything, made her way up the sturdy stairs of Link's house and instantly curled up into sleep on his bed.

"Goodnight, Queen," Link said to what he thought was an empty room, a blush, and smile on his face.

"Goodnight, King," Zelda said, as if on cue.

Now that made Link fluster.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- I would give these creative names but its a Sunday night and its currently 1:20 AM as I'm writing this so...  
> \- if there's mistakes or inconsistencies I apologize, I'll be sure to edit them in the morning  
> \- if you ask well why don't I post this in the morning its because my hyperfixation on these two dorks is gonna kick me off a mircowave if I don't publish this today so. Yeah.

Today gave Zelda’s back a chance to heal, given that they had taken a break from cleaning up the castle. The girl’s back had been a large bruise at the most; she was lucky that it wasn’t a deep wound. 

She might’ve slept in till’ noon if it wasn’t for the smell of Link cooking soup outside the house. Begrudgingly sitting up, her hair was a pile of frizz and brain was still a bit foggy. She realized she had slept in her royal outfit which still needed to be cleaned. Quickly, Zelda changed into a more casual outfit, but still had the triforce emblem pressed onto its royal blue fabric. She brushed out the frizziness in her hair, and met Link just outside the house.

He was in the middle of babying his horse which was underneath the small stable, giving her an unneeded amount of endura carrots. My sweet baby, she could’ve sworn she heard him mutter to the brown steed. 

Zelda kept her laughing quiet so as to not disturb him and his favorite animal. The soup still smelt good though and was kept warm due to the blazing fire beneath the cooking pot. 

She inspected it more, determining it was creamy heart soup, from the several radishes floating about in the pot and the smell of wildberries. Hylia, can he cook, she thought to herself. Zelda helped herself to some of the fruity soup, looking back at Link spoil his horse as she ate.

The horse loved the attention, however she eventually was full from all the carrots she’d been eating, which led Link’s attention back to Zelda, who was already halfway through a bowl of soup.

“This soup is amazing.” She applauded before taking another sip.

“Its creamy heart soup. A Gerudo woman taught me how to make it when I was in gerudo town.” He explained, sitting down next to the pot.

“How...did you get into Gerudo Town? Only women are allowed in,” Zelda asked, sitting down her nearly finished bowl. The response earned a flushed face from Link and a prolonged “uh”. He was unsure whether or not he should tell her that he had to get feminine clothes from a sketchy person on top of the Kara Kara Bazaar, and then crossdress to get in. 

Unfortunately, he was weak to Zelda’s requests as if he was still her appointed knight (which, in a way he still was), and explained himself, giving him an even redder face in the process. 

She asked her knight a myriad amount of questions, to which he would always answer with a story which made her wonder if Link was even Hylian. Fighting a Lynel, Hinox, or even a Moblin would spell death for just about any other being. A Hero’s blessing she supposed.  
Some questions, due to the heavy emotional toll it took on Link, were left unanswered. 

Zelda blamed no one but herself for those moments.

Conversation was soon interrupted, as a sheikah-dressed man came running to them. It was Symin, Purah’s assistant with all her ancient technology research. “Your Highness.” 

She wasn’t technically royalty, or least not until Hyrule Castle was restored. “Please, call me Zelda.” The girl wouldn't admit it, but she never felt like she deserved to be royalty.

“Yes. Zelda, Purah has found another piece of technology which is related to the sheikah slate. Thus, she wants you to see it a as soon as possible." Symin said with heavy breaths, probably not used to running so much.

Her eyes widened at the sound of ancient technology being mentioned, and she was ready to go at a minute's notice. 

Link told her to go with Symin, as he was going to clean up the house and food before going. Normally, he'd go with her, but she was safe in Hateno Village.

His Princess gave a soft smile and nod, promptly dashing off to the lab at the top of the village, leaving poor Symin to catch up.

After a long run and a few "Zelda, please slow down!" From the out of breath lab assistant, the girl had made it into Purah’s lab.

"Princess, you're here!" Purah was energetic as ever in her greetings. 

"Please call me Zelda for now." She repeated, noticing something glowing in the back room of the lab.

"Okie dokie!" Purah seemed to nonchalantly agree to the request. "Ready to see what I've found?"

Zelda didn't even get a chance to respond, because Purah already was dragging her to the back of the lab, where an ant-like robot stood.

Its body adorned the same material that shrines and divine beasts were made of, and its ant-like horns seemed to be impeccably strong. The creature’s rear had the same blue shine as any piece of ancient sheikah technology. It's two eyes looked the same as ones on a guardian, as it looked at Zelda with curiosity, turning its head side to side much like a dog.

"Check it! Presenting Vah Karu! Or, that’s at least what I think the sheikah blueprint says,” Purah muttered in her last sentence. “Zelda, may I see the sheikah slate please?”

The girl was much too fixated on Karu, because she wasn’t responding to just about any requests from Purah. “Zelda..?” Beginning to grow concerned, Purah lightly tapped her, which jolted her out of her fixed state.

“Sorry!” Zelda replied immediately. “It's perplexing. After all these years, we never found this? Where was Vah Karu found?” She squatted down and Karu chirped in response, crawling closer to her.

"They weren't really found," Purah started, "Now that there are less guardians near Akkala Citadel, I went searching for any pieces of ancient technology left behind. I found the blueprints and main body of Karu, so the rest is naturally made from guardian parts." She pointed to its legs and eyes, which explained why it looked so similar to one.

"Thankfully, all its programming is in its little head, so I was able to figure out what it can do." Purah’s hand was held out. "May I see the sheikah slate?"

"Of course." Zelda's face was beaming like a kid in a candy store, as Purah took the sheikah slate to the guidance stone. She was still the height of a young girl, so she struggled putting the sheikah slate in its spot.  
The guidance stone began to install a new rune onto the slate.

In the meantime, Purah hopped down from the stool she used to look back at Zelda, who was undoubtedly petting Karu on the head. It had no sensors there to detect the affection, but it seemed to appreciate it. The lab professor took note of this.

The undeniable sound of a horse trotting up the hill marked Link had arrived, and Purah had looked to the door when he came in. "You know you can just walk up here like everyone else." Purah was incredibly kind to Zelda, but Link didn't get any mercy.

"Hey. Epona goes with me everywhere." He responded, sounded a bit offended. His eyes drifted to where Zelda was, and he saw the glow of Vah Karu. "Woah."

The still-beaming girl grabbed Vah Karu by its thorax and held it in her arms, nearly shouting, "I know!" 

He walked over to her, reached out his hand, and looked at Zelda and received a nod. On cue, he patted the ant robot on its head.

Karu chirped a bit in surprise. 

The professor looked at them, confused at their lack of words. Were they having a conversation she wasn't hearing? She turned back to the guidance stone and grabbed the sheikah slate which now had new rune. Her small fingers tapped the hammer symbol, and Karu was chirping loudly and squirming, so Zelda put them down quickly and Link moved from the front to the side of her.

Between Karu’s antennae, a glowing point appeared, which projected a large screen in front of them, with the trademark sheikah blue. On it displayed a grid and a variety of blueprints, including items for a shrine trial. It also displayed a number of little ant symbols, most likely telling how many Karu's were needed to build something. “Little Karu here, along with many others of its kind, were most likely used to build the shrines and towers around Hyrule.” Purah explained, showing the sheikah slate’s screen to the pair, and then handing it back to Zelda.

As the white-haired girl continuously dumped information about the ancient builder, the princess swiped through the screen, looking at the blueprints there and then looking to Karu, who had displayed it on their screen. The knight was just as amazed as she was.

"Unfortunately, without the original building materials that Karu is made of, we can't make much more of them, so this one by itself serves little function." Purah corrected her glasses from sliding off her face and asked, "I'd figure you'd enjoy seeing this technology, Zelda."

"I did quite enjoy seeing Vah Karu. What are you planning on doing with it? Surely it has some use," she spoke, hope in her eyes that the technology wouldn't go to waste.

"Well, if I can," Purah elongated as she walked from the guidance stone to her blueprints, "I will try to study its build and replicate my own with guardian parts, though at the moment I'm not entirely confident it will end well."

Symin pitched in. "If she is successful, Hateno will have a swarm of robot ants."

"Hey!" The girl's high pitched response earned a chuckle from Link. 

So after saying thank you and giving multiple pats to Vah Karu, the pair went back to the town, with Zelda keeping usually quiet. She wasn't upset, but rather adrift in the possibilities if Karu could be used to its full potential. They could re-build towns and all the ruins in Hyrule Field.

They could rebuild the castle. 

A sting from her back essentially ran up her spine as she was walking down the long hill from Hateno Lab. The Princess's face clearly winced, because Link took immediate notice.

"Is your back alright?" He asked, stopping his horse right in its tracks. "We can stop here for a bit."

It was a bit painful, but it was only for a moment. "It's alright, just minor pain. Thank you though, Link." Her voice wasn't sarcastic or trying to hide anything like the previous night. It was soft and appreciative. Genuine.

The knight could actually believe her this time, and signaled for his horse to start walking again. It was a quiet again for a moment, and then Link asked, "You really think Purah is gonna make a bunch of Karus?"

She giggled, "Maybe. It's very possible, so I wouldn't doubt her."

They laughed as they talked about the silly things Purah would do with a bunch of ancient ants. They were apparently so lost in their conversation, they hadn't realized they made it into town until a younger kid called out to them. 

"Mom! Look, it's the pretty lady and her boyfriend!" Of course, they chuckled out of embrassment, though Link had significantly redder ears and cheeks. The mother of the young child said something along the lines, "Please stop calling them out."

Their status as a pair always seemed a bit more than best friends to others, and even themselves. Yet, the princess and her knight never got the chance to understand the status of their relationship due to the lurking presence of Calamity Ganon. 

Maybe with Ganon out of the way, they could actually confirm the mutual feelings. You know, when I work up the courage, Link thought to himself, mentally facepalming.

They reached the Hateno house once more, the conversation topic suddenly changed. 

"Link, do you think...do you think we can rebuild Hryule's castle?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo I also made art for Vah Karu if you would like a visualization of them. Thanks for reading! :3  
> https://angst-dealer.tumblr.com/post/640879526892732416/so-anyways-divine-mini-ant


End file.
